But hundreds of owners have complained that it will not perform a function that even a £10 “brick” phone manages reliably: they are unable to receive calls.

Launching the iPhone X last summer, with a cost of between £999-£1,149, the technology giant said “there has never been anything like it”.

When some users receive a call, however, the handset is said to ring and buzzes as usual but the screen fails to activate for up to ten seconds, leaving them unable to press the buttons to accept or decline it.

Updating the phone to the latest version of the iOS operating system does not help, they said. Restarting…